IRC: Team backs Meeke after Monte mistake

Team boss Marc van Dalen has backed his lead driver Kris Meeke to fight back following the crash that put him out of the Monte Carlo Rally last week.

Team boss Marc van Dalen has backed his lead driver Kris Meeke to fight back following the crash that put him out of the Monte Carlo Rally last week.

Meeke, the defending Intercontinental Rally Challenge champion, was in second place when he slid off the road on a patch of black ice on the opening stage of the second leg of the event.

Although his Peugeot UK 207 S2000 suffered nothing more than a cracked front bumper, the car was stranded down a bank and Meeke and co-driver Paul Nagle were forced to retire.

"It was a mistake and it can happen," said van Dalen, the co-owner of Meeke's Kronos Racing team. "But I am not going to blame him because we win as a team and we lose as a team and I know he will come back from this, starting in Brazil when I hope we can win again."